For the second time in three years, a Burnaby elementary school has taken top spot at the B.C. Elementary School Team Chess Championships last weekend.
Marlborough Elementary wrested the top prize from defending champions St. George’s School from Vancouver.
Facing seven strong contenders at the Saturday tournament, the team took first place in the A Section with 15.5 points after five rounds.
Along the way, the Burnaby team defeated two-time B.C. champions Erma Stephenson Elementary from Surrey 2.5-1.5 and drew even 2-2 with St. George’s, even though the seven-time defending champions, who hosted the tournament, had a candidate master competing.
Marlborough’s A team was made up of Grade 7 students Henry Yang and Alex Wang (both grade 7), Grade 4 Aiden Leong and Grade 3 Leonardo Zhou.
Yang nailed down first place for his team by upsetting a candidate master from Whiteside School in Richmond in the last round on Board 1.
Zhou, meanwhile, was the Most Valuable Player with a 5-0 sweep on Board 4.
The other Burnaby team competing in the A section, Suncrest, tied for fourth.
Most members of Marlborough’s and Suncrest’s chess teams in the last couple years have been regular participants in free monthly Knightmare Quad tournaments put on at the Tommy Douglas Library on Sunday afternoons by internationally certified arbiter of the World Chess Federation, Henry Chiu.
For more information about the Knightmare Quad chess tournaments, contact Chiu at knightmares64@gmail.com.
